In recent years, streaming of multimedia content through digital data networks to user terminal devices has expanded and increased in popularity around the world. Many services enable a user to stream music, movies, or other media stored on servers directly to the user's computer or set top box. The media may be transmitted via one or more networks using various networking technologies.
However, streaming content consumes considerable network resources. Video content requires an especially large amount of network resources since video content often contains a video portion as well as a corresponding audio portion. The increasing popularity of streaming multimedia content places high demands on the networks that carry the streaming media to user devices, which in turn requires the network operators to deploy additional resources to stream video content.
With the increased sophistication of mobile networks and the increased consumer usage of mobile wireless data services, the recent trend is for the network service providers to replace unlimited data plans with service plans in which the cost to the customer is based on usage, e.g. the amount of data communication through the network to/from a mobile device. In some cases, a user may enter into an agreement with a service provider and/or a network operator to obtain a limited amount of data service through a mobile network to a user's mobile device in exchange for a monthly fee, with more data being available at an additional cost. Accordingly, a user may be discouraged from streaming videos to the user's mobile device for fear of incurring additional costs.
Hence a need exists for reducing the network resources used to stream video content in order to reduce the demands put on a network when the video content is streamed and/or reduce the amount of a user's data used to stream the video content.